S.J. officials must put up dukes to battle political maneuvering

In a staggering display of insensitivity, the governor of California last week chose Stockton as the spot in which to get goose bumps over passage of the state water package.

Michael Fitzgerald

In a staggering display of insensitivity, the governor of California last week chose Stockton as the spot in which to get goose bumps over passage of the state water package.

"Part of this package," gushed Arnold Schwarzenegger, "is to fix the Delta and to build a canal around the Delta. ... That was great news this morning."

Pause for applause. No applause. If Schwarzenegger still had that data readout that used to appear in the Terminator's field of vision, it would read, CRICKETS.

May I suggest why? It's not the cynical subversion of the legislative process. We saw that handwriting on the wall long ago. Though I must say you guys outdid yourselves.

It's not the Quisling collaboration of certain big environmental groups, though those dupes legitimized the rape of a wondrous estuary.

It's not the 1950s plan for dams and canals, though that is fundamentally an obsolete scheme to take more from an estuary that greed already brought to the edge of destruction.

It's the presumption that this region is such an afterthought that it really doesn't matter whether its residents swallow the transparent greenwashing and legislative charade meant to conceal this late-model Owens Valley water grab.

Same with prison officials.

Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso and top state prison officials visited this paper last week. They pledged collaboration, mitigation, good community citizenship.

These are the same loyal allies behind the secret and unilateral scheme to burden this community with three new prison facilities.

Without public hearing, they sent out a formal Notice of Decision, which under state law shortens the statute of limitations - the window for suing to stop them - from 180 to a mere 30 days.

Is there any doubt they would have shrunk the days to 0 if they could?

Given all that, plus the prison system's history of shamelessly broken promises, I'm surprised they could keep a straight face. They must inject themselves with Botox.

I'll make a prediction about the other giant project involving this area, high-speed rail. I predict if that system ever gets built, the powers that be will renege on their promise to beef up traditional rail over the Altamont.

They'll shrug helplessly and say they have no choice: there's a budget crisis, a court order, unforeseeable new circumstances, a flat tire, their dog ate it.

Because they can.

Politically, that is. In terms of population vs. Los Angeles - voters - powerful elected representatives, special interests, war chests, etc., San Joaquin is vastly outgunned.

But there is a point in all these endeavors when the fight moves into the courts. That, my friends, is a different kettle of smelt.

The law levels the playing field, more or less. Then beware, ye backroom boys; ye who rigged the political process; ye who funded the biased study; ye Astroturf; ye to whom the environmental impact report was no more than formality.

Then those who seek to exploit this region may meet their Waterloo.

The local chamber has announced it will challenge the prison hospital's EIR in court. They soon were joined by the city of Stockton and the county of San Joaquin.

"We have no choice but to file action so to protect our rights and maximize our leverage in achieving the mitigations we desire," City Attorney Ren Nosky said.

That and that alone is the reason prison officials are making nice: A judge is a deck they can't stack.

As for the peripheral canal, "The fight is just starting," vowed Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "Now they move into our arena: water rights and legal arenas."

The state will try an end-run around the Endangered Species Act; seek permission to change the point of water diversion; propose a water-quality control plan; seek approval of the weird, five-year "two gates" experiment of erecting barriers in Connections Slough and Old River to keep the smelt out of their critical habitat so they can even further increase water exports.

"We'll go to war on that," Jennings said.

All these points are vulnerable to court challenges. Very vulnerable, in my opinion. The interest-driven distortions of the political process produced socially and environmentally unjust policy.

"A judge is ultimately going to make the decision over the Bay/Delta - for good or ill," Jennings said. "Frankly, this legislation was a full employment plan for attorneys. There's years of fights still to come."